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Protecting Windows Server 2016 using Azure Backup

The IT industry is excited about the general availability of Windows Server 2016 with enhancements to Active Directory, Hyper-V failover clustering, remote desktop services, and file and storage services. Windows Server 2016 is being widely run on physical as well as virtual environments such as Hyper-V and VMware VM and is used for hosting server applications such as SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint. Protecting these workloads is amongst the top priorities for IT admins managing their datacenters.

Azure Backup has evolved into a first-class platform-as-a service (PaaS) in Microsoft Azure that integrates with the on-premises enterprise class backup products, System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), and Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) to provide a seamless Hybrid cloud backup solution. With its cloud first enterprise backup architecture, Azure Backup enables IT admins to be essentially free from infrastructure management tasks such as provisioning infrastructure for backup needs, security, and maintenance. Also, with Windows Server’s native backup solution, Windows Server Backup, you can backup system state and do bare metal recovery of Windows Server 2016 to local disk as well.

Whether you are running Windows Server 2016 on premises or in Azure and want to protect your files and folders, private cloud deployments, or server applications, we provide a comprehensive strategy for all your Windows Server 2016 deployments.

Backup Windows Server 2016 to local disk

With Windows Server Backup, you can backup a full server (all volumes or selected volumes), system state to local disk, and do a bare metal recovery to local disk in case of any disaster.

Backup Azure IaaS VMs running Windows Server 2016

If you are running Windows Server 2016 on Azure IaaS VMs, you can protect the VMs with the native IaaS VM backup. You get an application-consistent backup of Azure IaaS VMs, with no hassles of licensing backup software and provisioning compute and storage infrastructure, and with the ease of instantly restoring individual files and folders on the Azure IaaS VMs.

Backup files and Windows System State on Windows Server 2016 directly to Azure

With Azure Backup, you can backup the Windows Server System State and files on your Windows Server 2016 directly to Azure. This provides for comprehensive protection of File Server, Active Directory, and IIS-Web Server roles, and allows for quick recovery from corruption and disasters by eliminating server-setup chores and giving instant access to backed-up data. Also, with Azure Backup’s enhanced security features you can protect your backed up data against security threats like ransomware.